Erie to decide on a facelift for aging Coal Creek Park

$3 million price tag could be potential stumbling block for downtown park

By John Aguilar, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
04/06/2013 10:47:24 AM MDT

Updated:
04/07/2013 12:29:06 AM MDT

Alice Burnett plays with her dog, Boscow, at Coal Creek Park in Erie, on Friday..

If you go

What: Erie Board of Trustees discuss Coal Creek Park redevelopment

When: 6:30 p.m., Tuesday

Where: Erie Town Hall, 645 Holbrook St.

As Erie has added new ballfields, a community center, a library, and a world-class skate park over the last few years, Coal Creek Park in the historic downtown district doesn't have the same shine and luster it had a couple of decades ago.

Its playing fields, tiny skatepark, and outdated concession stand don't seem to have much to offer in the face of the town's gleaming new facilities to the south. The playground at one end of the park was removed earlier this year because it was outdated.

One of three proposed redesigns for Coal Creek Park in Erie.

On the table before the Erie Board of Trustees Tuesday evening will be three concepts for revamping the park, which lies just east of Kattell Street. Some of the new features of a redeveloped park could include a splash pad, winter ice rink, playground, performance venue, a shade structure, an art garden and two parking lots with a total of 148 spaces.

The trustees can choose certain features from any of the three concepts and ask for a hybrid design to be put together, Town Spokesman Fred Diehl said. There are also options to pursue a natural, historical or contemporary aesthetic in the designs and materials used.

"It could be some combination of the alternatives," Diehl said.

The design firm, DHM Design, will take the board's preferences and refine them into a single concept and bring that back to the board for consideration in late May.

Diehl emphasized that the proposed redevelopment of Coal Creek Park is just part of a larger effort to revive the entire downtown, which over the years has struggled with graffiti attacks, code enforcement campaigns and shuttered businesses.

A second of three proposed designs for redevelopment of Coal Creek Park in Erie.
(courtesy)

"We're trying to revitalize historic downtown," he said. "It's not just about creating a park -- it's about creating a there, there. We want to create a destination for residents and also draw customers to downtown to support the businesses there."

Marty Ostholthoff, Erie's director of community development, said downtown Erie and Coal Creek Park are natural destinations for residents and outsiders alike. And if a proposed extension of Moffat Street connecting downtown with the planned 2,800-unit residential development Bridgewater -- recently renamed Daybreak -- gets built to the east, it will position the park as an even more integral part of the downtown.

The third of three proposed designs for redevelopment of Coal Creek Park in Erie.
(
courtesy
)

"A lot of our trails feed down to this core downtown area," Ostholthoff said. "The timing is right to take a look at it. It needs a facelift and we are asking how to accomplish that."

A public presentation of the three concepts last month drew a sizable crowd and 50 people who turned in surveys made it clear they overwhelmingly backed the project. But the project's cost, which was pegged by DHM at around $3 million, could be a tough sell to a town that just five months ago shot down a $6.2 million police headquarters building on the November ballot.

Dave Sullivan, a 30-year resident of Historic Downtown and owner of Westwind Rifles, said the town was already financially "overextended" after having spent more than $1 million to build a Street League-certified skate park near the community center.

"I think these small towns like mine have to look at how they spend money," he said. "I'm concerned about our spending."

He acknowledged that increased downtown traffic would be a positive result of a revamped park but he wasn't sure a new Coal Creek Park would have that kind of pull.

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